Acts 17:16-26

Paul at Athens

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at ¹Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.

17 So he was reasoning ²in the synagogue with the Jews and ³the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.

18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would ⁴this idle babbler wish to say?" Others *, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"-because he was preaching ⁵Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they ⁶took him and brought him to the ⁷Areopagus, saying, "May we know what ⁸this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

20 "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean *."

21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers ⁹visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Sermon on Mars Hill

22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of ¹⁰Athens, I observe that you are very ¹¹religious in all respects.

23 "For while I was passing through and examining the ¹²objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what ¹³you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

24 "¹⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is ¹⁵Lord of heaven and earth, does not ¹⁶dwell in temples made with hands;

25 nor is He served by human hands, ¹⁷as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

26 and ¹⁸He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having ¹⁹determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

Cross References

• 1. Acts 17:15, 21; Acts 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:1
• 2. Acts 9:20; Acts 17:2
• 3. Acts 17:4
• 4. 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 4:10
• 5. Acts 4:2; Acts 17:31
• 6. Acts 23:19
• 7. Acts 17:22
• 8. Mark 1:27
• 9. Acts 2:10
• 10. Acts 17:15
• 11. Acts 25:19
• 12. 2 Thessalonians 2:4
• 13. John 4:22
• 14. Isaiah 42:5; Acts 14:15
• 15. Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalms 115:16; Matthew 11:25
• 16. 1 Kings 8:27; Acts 7:48
• 17. Job 22:2; Psalms 50:10-12
• 18. Malachi 2:10
• 19. Deuteronomy 32:8; Job 12:23

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "disputing"
• [b]. I.e. one who makes his living by picking up scraps
• [c]. Or "before"
• [d]. Or "Hill of Ares," god of war
• [e]. Lit "which is being spoken by you"
• [f]. Or "the Council of the Areopagus"